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VADODARA, INDIA, June 11, 2004: Four sadhus (monks) and a disciple of the Vadtal Swaminarayan sect were sentenced to death by a Nadiad sessions court on Friday. The five were convicted for murdering Swami Gadadharanand, who was chairman of the Vadtal temple committee, and burning off his body to destroy the evidence a little over six years ago. Judge Sitaben Dave, while delivering the death sentence, observed that the accused deserved the severest of punishment for the heinous crime, as being men of religion, a superior conduct was expected of them. “Common men can be expected to have satanic tendencies, but when men of religion indulge in such acts they need to be given the severest punishment,” the judgement observed. She observed that once in saffron robes, the sants were supposed to spend lives in the service of God, but these men had indulged in the gruesome killing of a fellow sant for personal gains and shook the faith of hundreds of thousands of devotees of the sect.



The court also sentenced the accused to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment under section 201 of the IPC and life term under section 364 of the IPC. According to case details, the accused — Narayan swami, Shreejisharan swami, Ghanshyam swami, Madhavprasad swami and Vijaybhagat swami — kidnapped Swami Gadadharanand from Navli Gurukul in Anand on May 3, 1998. They mixed sedatives in his soft drink and strangulated him after he fell unconscious. They then took the body to Dungarpur village in Rajasthan where it was burnt to destroy evidence. The local police, after giving newspaper notices, had disposed of the mortal remains. They retained two gold teeth and belongings that were intact. After the police and the local Crime Branch failed to trace the missing sant, the investigation was handed over to the CBI by Gujarat High Court following a writ petition by Gadadharanand’s disciple Jatinbhagat swami. The agency chargesheeted the five accused. It also carried out DNA tests of Gadadharanand’s teeth and hair. Once his identity was confirmed, the CBI recovered his mortal remains 10 months after the crime.



The gruesome act shook the foundations of the 126-year-old sect and shocked thousands of devotees throughout the country and abroad. Gadadharanand’s murder was seen as part of the power struggle between the Acharyas (descendants of the sect founder) and Devs (sadhus) to gain control over the temple’s massive funds and abundant wealth that pour in in the form of donations and offerings. Chairman of the temple funds committee, Gadadharanand was a powerful swami holding sway over the postings of smaller sants to various temples across the State. According to sources in the sect, huge money was involved in the transfer of kotharis (administrators) to different temples, and Gadadharanand had got embroiled in these struggles, angering a particular group.



A fortnight before he was murdered, Swami Gadadharanand had switched loyalties from the Acharyas to the Dev faction. By pulling in Gadadharanand, the Dev group had been trying to overthrow the Acharyas and gain majority in the trust. The temple trust controls 36 temples across the country. Its accumulated earnings is over US$3 million. This is besides the lavish gifts and thousands of dollars that each sadhu at Vadtal gets. The swamis remain split in two major factions. The Acharya group, representing the descendants of Lord Swaminarayan (an avtaar of Lord Krishna) and their disciples. The other is the Dev group comprising sadhus and their followers. The Acharya group believes since the “blood of the Lord” runs in their veins, they should control the temple trust while the Dev group argues the temple is nobody’s ancestral property, it belongs to the devotees and the sadhus.



HPI adds: The BAPS organization of Sri Pramukh Swami Maharaj is a reform group of Lord Swaminarayan’s followers and is not associated with either of these factions.

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